We took the time to have a chat with James and see what it would have taken for him to get on the top step.

First of all, James, second place, it’s a great result, one that many would be extremely happy with, what though are your thoughts?

Whilst second is a great result, I don’t think its what any of us go racing for and to have taken it down to the final few rounds is hard but and the end of the day we just made too many mistakes over the course of the year. To be able to win a championship like this you cant put a foot wrong all season and we just did it a few to many times this year which we will be looking to fix next year to hopefully go 1 better.

What do you think was the turning point in the series?

I really don’t think there was a turning point all year, with the gap at the top of the standing being extremely close all year it never really felt like there was a single point where it turned. However in saying that in the 2nd last round there was a tough strategy call to make and we unfortunately fell on the wrong side of that and from that point on I had given up any hope of the championship win.

Strategy is an important part of a solid result, how much did this affect you?

Massively, looking the points we lost through poor strategy this year was a lot and cost us a lot of points. And to finish still quite close to the championship winner with all these errors is promising and should bode well for us next year if we can get this area of the racing in order and be able to scrap for every point possible.

SSR as a team have had a solid team with driver depth, what are your thoughts on the team as a whole and how much did they help you?

SSR have been great, obviously having quite a few fast guys, it makes race preparation just that bit easier having someone to compare to in the lead up to the race. Being a 1 man team at the front would be tough without really knowing where to improve etc. We have worked quite well as a team all year and I think we have all improved in different aspects of our racing over the course of the year which is great to see.

The Bathurst win was surely a highlight, how did you find that weekend?

Bathurst was awesome, there is always a debate in real life whether winning Bathurst or the championship is more of an achievement, for me im probably slightly more of the latter however in saying that, the Bathurst win was incredible. Teaming up with SVG was great and to have his experience both in and out of the car made my job really easy, just drive as fast as possible. It felt like we had a really fast car however with the really strong draft model just couldn’t break it to really compare our pace to the others. The fight at the end was awesome and it was awesome to come away on the right side of it and grab the win.

Did you think at any stage that the title may be slipping away from you or was it a matter of fighting to the last lap?

All year it was so close however as I mentioned just before, probably mid point of road America when we went with a different strategy and it didn’t come off I knew it was going to be hard to come back from there especially knowing how busy I was going to be in real life for preparation in the last round.

What are your thoughts on the series overall?

The series is great, having the best guys go against each other is awesome and not to have the commitment of racing every week. The media work the series does to promote different aspects of the series/teams really makes it the pinnacle of v8 racing on iRacing.

Many punters would say that you were the quickest driver/car combo of the year, how do you get that consistency week in week out?

Hard to put a finger on it, ive been on the sim for a little while now and it just feels natural and I feel like it just happens through that. Im always my own harshest critic so striving for perfection for me is the only option whether its in real life or the sim and I don’t like to accept anything less. Having pace is 1 thing however we did not maximise that enough this year which is extremely disappointing so I will work on that in the off season to try and be better next year.

And finally, in 2024, do we see the car 088 up the front again? if so, what, if any changes will be made to ensure you get on the top step?

I certainly hope so, I don’t think we need to make wholesale changes just need to refine what we have and improve the process and I think that should really help in 2024.

Thanks so much for your time on this James,and congratulations on a very entertaining year of racing.